Autumn Soon we will plunge ourselves into cold shadows,
And all of summer's stunning afternoons will be gone.
I already hear the dead thuds of logs below
Falling on the cobblestones and the lawn.
All of winter will return to me:
derision, Hate, shuddering, horror, drudgery and vice,
And exiled, like the sun, to a polar prison,
My soul will harden into a block of red ice.
I shiver as I listen to each log crash and slam:
The echoes are as dull as executioners' drums.
My mind is like a tower that slowly succumbs
To the blows of a relentless battering ram.
It seems to me, swaying to these shocks, that someone
Is nailing down a coffin in a hurry somewhere.
For whom? --It was summer yesterday; now it's autumn.
Echoes of departure keep resounding in the air.
--Charles Baudelaire
MY RESPONSE:
I know what you're thinking.
Why did I post a picture of such an eerie looking man? or maybe you're trying to figure out as to why I chose such a morbid and gloomy poem to post on my blog?
way to bring the mood down right?
Well there is one main and obvious reason as to why I posted this poem.
Imagery. Imagery. Imagery.
If you, as the reader, just sit back and really read and try to understand this poem you can witness and hopefully appreciate the strong imagery used. For instance, an example of a line that demonstrates powerful imagery is,
"I shiver as I listen to each log crash, the echoes are as dull as executioners' drums."
As a reader we can see, feel and relate to the speaker shivering in the cold Autumn weather. We can hear the low eerie thuds of the executioners drum pounding before an execution. Baudelaire's poem Autumn is able to awaken our senses in a way that most poems don't. Every year we physically witness a change in the seasons, a change in the temperature, and a change in the environment. And every year we even witness a change in ones moods. As the weather gets colder so do ones attitudes. This is why Baudelaire states,
"all of winter will return to me: derision, hate, shuddering, horror, drudgery, and vice...."
We are aware of these changes and we are accustomed to them. Charles Baudelaire connects the change in the seasons with the change in moods by using similies and metaphors to tie together his judgments and help us understand clearly what it is he is trying to say.
Although, to some, his poems may be nothing more than just "plain ol' creepy," hopefully for others, we can learn to look past the "eeriness" and learn to respect and understand Baudelaire and his work.
And as far as my reasoning goes for posting the picture....don't you think he's such an alluring man? =]
Autumn 
